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Lunar First Aid: Feel to Fight Another Day

This week saw one of the largest protests in U.S. history, a protest that lit up the news with images of a loving, passionate, HUGE political movement. This week also rang in a dark era of oppression and lies. Many of us who are not inclined to fight have become fighters. Many who are not inclined to worry have turned insomniac. Longtime fighters and worriers find ourselves energized and exhausted by this sudden collective action after years on the fringe. We are all teetering between a before and after. It’s hard to walk forward in our lives when the road is fogged, each footstep uncertain. Will this step give out beneath us? Will the next?

If we are to continue forward, we must find ways to rest, reflect and nourish ourselves. Astrology tells us exactly how to do that. The secret is in our moon sign. While our sun sign—”your” sign as determined by birth date—represents our daylight, goal-setting self, our moon shows us who we are inside. Find out your moon sign in less than a minute by clicking here*, then read the description below for rest and recharge advice.

*The moon can be in up to two different signs in the course of a day. If you don’t have your exact birth time, look up 12am and 11:59pm. If you get two moon signs, read both below to see which fits!

Moon in AriesBasic Need – Action; Independence; Exciting challenges.Red Flags – Selfishness; taking out anger on others or self; manic activity.Healthy Habits – Getting regular cardio exercise is key, so run, box, swim, climb—and race against the clock. A pumping heart will chase away bad feelings and restore you to your normal high energy. Once restored, leap into battle with a new creative project that gives expression to your unspoken self. Also, it can be nice to cry while punching—make your pillow feel the hurt while you feel the feels. Once you’ve taken care of (instead of beating on) yourself, you have more patience with others and your exuberant loving energy can come out to play.Quick Fix – Parkour.

Moon in Taurus

Basic Need –Stability; Slowness; Nurturing via the five senses.Red Flags – Selfishness; Resisting change; Jealousy.Healthy Habits – Emotions are always changing. Problem is, you are really, really not a fan of change, especially those happening inside you. Your tendency with emotions is to cling on so they can never ever get away, even when the emotion in question sucks balls. Better that than hurtle full force into an unpredictable feeling that could mean needing new things in your life, like a different husband/wife or a new apartment or space from your family. You just want a little inner stability—is that so wrong? Problem is, when you try to put walls around that inner ocean, the result is depression and a quiet, poisonous anger that seeps into everything. Your challenge, bull-heart, is to feel those feelings gradually while soothing your senses. So draw yourself an aromatherapeutic hot bath, put on your favorite track and let yourself peek into that Pandora’s box. Slowly but surely, the emotions will flow along and leave you feeling comfortable from the inside out.Quick Fix– One (wo)man dance party.

Moon in Gemini

Basic Need – Communication; People time; Brain food.Red Flags – Racing mind; Insomnia; Inability to rest.Healthy Habits – Get curious about your inner self, which so often wants two or three or twenty competing things at once. It’s not easy for you to sit and feel your emotions, but writing them down helps. Sit at a busy café or in a bus station or library and pour your inner monologue onto paper where you can get a good look at what’s going on. When introspecting makes you anxious, talk it out on the therapist’s couch or to a friend who can interrupt and propose some order for your frantic mind. Take a break from your inner life entirely by spending nice social time chatting with the café barista. Ride the bus around town and eavesdrop, or just take a new route to work—and while you’re at it, turn off your phone! All these will help focus your racing mind.Quick Fix – Write in your journal.

Moon in Cancer

Basic Need – Nurturing; Coziness; Security; Family.Red Flags – Manipulation; Endless emotional rollercoaster; Over-nurturing.Healthy Habits – While you are a pro at feeling your emotions, it can be a challenge to stop feeling them–or at least get out from under them. You learned a long time ago that others stay close when you cry and come guiltily slinking back when you turn away. Your tendency to lead this push-pull dance of intimacy means that you always have someone to mother (or to play baby to) when you’re feeling your most vulnerable. Problem is, that also prevents you from having the security you really need. When a mood drops over you, parent yourself by setting a time limit for sweet self-indulgence. Self-indulge healthily by picking out a recipe you’ve always felt too lazy to do and going it through it step by step, snacking and sniffing as you concoct your yummy magic. Then invite over you BFF to chow down. This combination of indulgence and discipline is also known as parenting—exactly what your tender inner child is asking for.Quick Fix – Paint a picture.

Moon in Leo

Basic Need – Attention from those closest; Love & romance; Loyalty; To express feelings creatively.Red Flags – Melodrama; Making demands; Romantic martyrdom.Healthy Habits – The best thing you Leo moons can do for yourself is be honest about your need for attention. Your flair for turning your hurts and joys, your longings and epiphanies into the soap opera of the century can be ridiculously charming–and also allows you to get the admiring sympathy that soothes any wound. Telling your closest loves that this is what you need gives them a chance to say whether they are ready to play audience. While it might burn if your best friend begs off hearing about last night’s date disaster, by giving her a chance to say no, you’re building the trust that ensures she’ll stick around for the long haul. Luckily, you can always find ways to entertain yourself–and they really do help you feel better. Cheering up your friends or partner is another surefire way to pull yourself out of a funk. Because the real reason you like to perform your feelings is that in your heart of hearts, you just feel better when the people around you are happy.Quick Fix – Costume change.

Moon in Virgo

Basic Need – To fix, contain or organize emotions; To help loved ones in tangible ways; Inner growth.Red Flags – Criticizing everyone and yourself; Perfectionism; Obsessiveness; Anxiety.Healthy Habits – The sign of Virgo loves to label, sort, analyze and repair–which can be an awkward fit for the moon’s mooshy, changeable emotions. When young, you Virgo moons tend to experience anxiety when you or others get stirred up and feel guilt, criticism or both as a result. Your task is to let feelings work their way through without analyzing them to death. To calm yourself, cook healthy food, walk a dog, pet a cat, label every jar in the house, debug your boyfriend’s computer, do a jigsaw puzzle, oil some bike gears, whittle a spoon, get out in the garden, hike, volunteer–anything that uses up your nervous energy! Likewise, when the people you love get emo, ask them how you can help. Chances are, they only want you to listen and hold their hand. Easy! Turns out that this whole feeling thing might not be so much work after all.Quick Fix – Clean house.

Moon in Libra

Basic Need – Inner peace; Beauty; Companionship.Red Flags – Compromising to make someone else happy; Avoiding difficult emotions; Being fake.Healthy Habits – You Libra moons know how to relax, to listen and take pleasure in your downtime. These are a few of the many reasons your loved ones like to be around you. Even so, you can fall into the habit of bending over backwards to make your family members and closest friends happy, to the point of losing all track of what you need. Because your kindness is automatic, you will never be short of company for movies, dinner, cuddling and conversation, which means you can let some of those people be unhappy with you from time to time. Chances are good they’ll come back around. In the meantime, you’ll be thoroughly enjoying QT with the other people you love.Quick Fix – Call the bestie 911 unit.

Moon in Scorpio

Basic Need – Privacy; Self-understanding; Intimacy.Red Flags– Possessiveness; Distrust; Compulsive self-harm.Healthy Habits – You are all or nothing when it comes to R&R. You binge on sex, sugar, sadness and introspection one month and run your interior life like a bootcamp the next. You need to lose emotional control from time to time but when you inevitably get hurt, you punish yourself by shutting off the intimacy that your heart so craves. In fact, your needs and feelings must go through fiery death cycles in order to be reborn, just as Persephone’s journey to the underworld each year gives us the fertility and abundance of spring. Embrace your journey as a psychologist might, trying to understand your hurts, fears, compulsions, cravings and pleasures as you feel them. This will connect you to your inner power source even as you surrender to the transformative force of emotion.Quick Fix– Intense sex with a lover you trust.

Moon in Sagittarius

Basic Need – To find meaning; People time; Inner faith; Emotional honesty.Red Flags – Dumb risk-taking; Partying to avoid sadness; The worst despair that ever despaired.Healthy Habits – At your best, you are an exuberant, joyful, hopeful force and the world is your family. At worst, you’re a speeding sex-booze-caffeine-fueled train headed off the rails. What that train is running away from is sadness–and worse, the bleak uncertainty that lies beneath. Even the people closest to you may not know you can flip from Captain Fun to a one-person pit of hellish despair. The trick is, you nourish yourself on pure faith in your fellow humans and in life. If your faith fails, you do too, badly. That despair hurts but rarely lasts long. So do yourself a favor and take the sadness challenge. Grab a stack of philosophy or spirituality books/inspirational youtube videos, set out for an inspiring landscape, go rock-climbing or explore a new neighborhood with friends who love the real you. You’ll be back to your normal exuberant self in no time.Quick Fix – Go on an adventure with your most fun people.

Moon in Capricorn

Basic Need – Self-development; Meaningful goals; Showing up for loved ones.Red Flags – Harshness; Survival mentality; Feeling dead inside.Healthy Habits – Naturally responsible, you didn’t get to be much of a kid. Now you instinctively do the dirty work at home–you enforce rules, pay bills, balance the budget–and worry. What you’re not as good at is nurturing yourself. You respond to your emotions and needs with the cruelty of a fairy tale stepmother. The spillover effect is that you can be hard on your loved ones without meaning to be. Unless you decide to take the risk of sharing your feelings and (gasp!) asking for help carrying your self-imposed burdens, the people who love you will have no idea how sensitive you are deep down. The good news is that Cap moons can heal even the most rugged inner landscape. Your self-care plan means committing to: feel your feelings, admit what you don’t know, relax, reassure instead of scolding, and let others help you. When all that is too much, it’s okay to work on a project–just make sure to stay in your body as you do. Slowly but surely, you’ll find yourself naturally giving and receiving the warmth and love you missed out on as a kid. You might even become an expert at it.Quick Fix – Set and work towards a CONCRETE goal.

Moon in Aquarius

Basic Need – To understand self; Time with likeminded weirdoes; Independence.Red Flags – Alienation; Treating loved ones like human research subjects; Erratic behavior.Healthy Habits – You’re different than other people and you know it. Secretly you take comfort in being superior to others, like how a rational cyborg is superior to illogical human beings. Problems arise from the fact that you aren’t actually a cyborg, just a human who feels like one, and your human meat suit comes equipped with a set of physiological responses called anger, sadness, joy, comfort, ecstasy, heartbreak, jealousy, self-pity etc. Depression prevention means learning to identify these feelings as they arise in your body. It takes some trial and error, but you are an emotional scientist, reaching brilliant conclusions about yourself that shed light on the human animal in general. But what’ll make you feel best is spending time with friends and being part of a group—especially one that connects around science, technology, woo-woo magic and/or political changeQuick Fix – Attend a group meeting for a cause you believe in.

Moon in Pisces

Basic Need – Sacred beauty; Compassion; Connection; Immersion in feelings.Red Flags – Martyrdom; Hurting others intentionally; Addiction & illness.Healthy Habits – You feel without boundaries and can easily be swamped by others’ moods. The truth is, your longing for connection leads you into any and all deep waters, to come to the rescue or to be rescued (it can be unclear which is which). Balance isn’t your forte–you’re too tidal for that–but you can possess tremendous centeredness. The key is to let yourself dissolve into that spiritual flow that is always running through you, via alone time, music, poetry, meditation and visualization. When you aren’t dependent on anyone else for connection, you become a vessel for healing love and can move through life’s inevitable hurts knowing that your spirit is already home.Quick Fix – Mindfulness meditation.